The winner of the St Albans District Primary Schools Trial Gala cup for 2016, awarded for the best performance at the 2016 Trials Gala, went to Emilia Dunwoodie, Year 5, of Harpenden Academy, Harpenden. Emilia was first in three events (all in new record times) and second in her other event. Well done to Emilia.The competition for awards for Best Performance 2nd and 3rd was very close with Freya Dibley, Year 6, coming second with one first place (narrowly missing a 2012 record in Breaststroke) and one second place, andLucy Coia-Bell, Year 6, coming third with two first places (narrowly missing a 2012 record in Freestyle) and one second place.The full list of the Trials Gala cup performances are at the bottom of this page.

Thank you to all the swimmers who participated in the gala. We saw some excellent swims and a significant number of personal best times. There were five records broken in total (out of 16 events). We had over 90 swimmers participating, ranging from region level swimmers to many at their first gala.

Particular standout efforts came from:

Emilia Dunwoodie - Year 5 Girls - three records and winner of three events; Freestyle, Breaststroke and Backstroke

​ - Freestyle - 1.27s inside of the 2012 record of Lauren Stott - Breaststroke - 0.66s inside of the 2014 record of Libby Chambers - Backstroke - 0.40s inside of the 2013 record of Lauren Stott

We thank all the officials and helpers who gave up their time to make this gala such a successful one.

We will be selecting the team in the next few of days and will e-mail those swimmers who have been successful. As a general rule, any swimmer that has come first or second in a particular event will be selected in the team. The Herts Inter-District Primary Championships are on Friday 29th April at Watford Woodside.

Andrew EllisSt Albans District Schools Swimming Association

Trials Gala cup 2016- The winner of the cup is generally that swimmer in their 2 best events had a better overall combined difference from Herts County qualification times than any other swimmer. The best 2 events must be both winning events. Where a swimmer had more than 2 winning events then the 2 best events (relative to the Herts qual times) are used.- The Herts county qualification times used are: 10 years for Year 5's and 11 years for Year 6's (the 2015 qualification times for counties have been used as these are set at March and are used to approximate 1/2 way through the school year (Sept to Aug))- It has to be recognised that this methodology is not completely foolproof and the performances over all events are looked at as a guide in the event of the 1st and 2nd places are close.- The Herts County qualification times are used as this currently is the best method to equalise the swimmers across years and boys/girls.- IMPORTANT: For the 2016 year, the 2nd to 6th places are calculated on the best two events irrespective if these were winning events. The 2nd and 3rd places received the Best Performance awards.